September 23, 2011

Aren’t the audiences for live TV events usually expected to react on cue? Aren’t they supposed to applaud only when the “Applause” light is lit? Did the debate audience flash the inverted hitchhikers sign (which very closely resembles the movie reviewer’s hand signal trademarked by Roger Ebert?) to indicate their suggestion to the “Give me Liberty or give me death” binary choice while they uttered their verbal bit of Gladiator nostalgia? “Could the studio audience’s shouting of ‘Let him die!’ have been a scripted moment?”

Isn’t it deadly serious and not the least bit funny when the right to life segment of the Republican Party sits in silence while a man of Pan African heritage is executed for a murder for which there is reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt? Did uncle Rushbo play the “Let him die!” sound byte on the day of the Troy Davis execution? Are the “Right to Life” advocates just playing “dead dog” on command or are they a dying breed? Will the Republicans keep the “Let him die!” philosophy in mind when it comes time to apply some stringent budget cuts to the Veterans Hospitals programs? (Do Republicans laugh when they hear Elvis sing “Old Shep”?)

Isn’t it logical to conclude that either the “Right to Life” or “Let him die!” is a false flag operation for the Republican’ts? Or have they mastered the concept that George Orwell dubbed “double think”?

Will any bleeding-heart liberal pundit ask: “Is it really surprising to find Gestapo values in a war crimes nation?”

Read John Powers book “Sore Winners” and then try to make the point that a scripted spontaneous moment couldn’t have been the case. Aren’t all the famous Republican moments well scripted? (Such as: “We hear you!”?)

Could it be that pundits for mainstream media are no longer expected to do anything but act as part of a bucket brigade for conservative talking points?

If the paid pundits have morphed into subservient propagandists, then they won’t risk their weekly paychecks to ask impertinent questions about the piss-poor job performance of the Republicans in Congress. Why should they?

If America has become an “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” nation, why should a media personality risk his job just to bring up the possibility that voters negotiating to save their homes from foreclosure are dealing with the same kind of hardhearted desperados as were featured in the famous example of Arab folklore.

There is an old bit of American folk wisdom warning that the one sure way of avoiding a divorce is to never get married. Using that logic, if people don’t want to deal with a bank foreclosing on their homes, then they shouldn’t buy one.

If the wife does get sick, new wisdom says: “have a divorce lawyer deliver the adios papers!” Was Newt afraid to do that?

Isn’t it selfish (and a fine example of sewing the seeds for class warfare) for foreclosure victims to begrudge bankers their generous Christmas bonuses? Do they want the foreclosure henchmen to be paid salaries just to sit and ignore past-due mortgage payments?

Didn’t a John Steinbeck novel prove that you can’t move to California and take the family farm in Oklahoma with you?

Aren’t über-cynical pundits saying that it is very poignant to realize that the author of “Generation of Swine” died long before the spectacle of this year’s P. T. Barnum style Presidential race began to unfold?

JEB has not been littering the debates with embarrassing sound bytes. JEB has not been participating in kindergarten level squabbles. JEB will look absolutely statesman-like in comparison, when the Vermont primary is held.

Isn’t the underlying reason for the pitiful Republican field the same clever bit of game-playing that causes manager of the headline acts at a rock concert to take extreme measures to make sure that the opening acts don’t eclipse his guys? If an opening act gets boo-ed off the stage, isn’t the contrast much greater then when the headliners do take the stage?

Sure it would be fun to open for the Rolling Stones during their next tour. What band could turn down such an invitation? What critic really cares who opens for the Stones? Isn’t it mind-boggling to realize that the greatest rock and roll band in the world will soon be celebrating their 50th year in business? Will they play a gig at the Marquise Club just to draw attention to the milestone? How much money could such a hypothetical gig raise for charity?

Did Tony Bennett just get some adverse publicity for calling for a new investigation into 9-11?

A soldier who doesn’t fight on the battle field is subject to a court-martial for dereliction of duty. (Wasn’t there some talk in Washington this week about reinstituting the draft?) A worker who lacks diligence can be fired for incompetence. A nihilist who lacks energy can express his philosophy of life by goofing-off. Can the Republicans who were elected to work in the legislative branch of government be impeached for their sit-down strike tactics?

Voters in America are free to use the electronic voting machines that leave no verifiable results to (try) to vote the rascals out of office. Cynics are still free (for how much longer?) to ask if that isn’t like the concept in a David Bowie song of putting out a fire by dousing it with gasoline.

Didn’t the Nazis use a minority party to control a majority of citizens who didn’t approve of their political program? In many Arab countries isn’t it often the case that a Shiite minority rules over a Sunni majority of citizens (or is it the other way around?)? What Republican would object on moral or political philosophical grounds to the suggestion that they use the electronic voting machines to permit a minority party to rule over a much bigger number of citizens in a majority party?

Doesn’t the Vince Lombardi philosophy apply to the use of electronic voting machines with unverifiable results? “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”

The term “false flag operation” has been bandied about frequently recently and it makes this columnist wonder if perhaps somehow people in a smoke filled room were inspired by that concept to engineer a way to get a Republican mole into the White House cleverly disguised as a precedence setting Democrat.

Will some of Pan Am’s airplanes turn into time machines? Is it true that Leonardo DiCaprio will make an uncredited cameo appearance on the new TV show? We are going to try to catch that if we can.

Closing quote: Kurt Weill said: “Wherever I found decency and humanity in the world it reminded me of America.”

Now the disk jockey will get a little esoteric by playing: “Somehow I Never Could Believe” (from “Street Scene”), Marlene Dietrich’s “See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have” (from “Destry Rides Again”), and Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife.” We have to cut out. Have a Weimar Republic type week and keep the “Applause” light lit while the credits roll.